The Shunyata Research OMEGA-X-Ethernet Cable

While the book is not about audio, a fascinating read is Dr. Cordelia Fine's "A Mind of Its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives".  It explains how our brain works and how easily it is swayed by subjectivities, both conscious and subconscious.  Audiophiles don't become immune to this human trait simply because the subject is audio equipment. 

But, if you've got the money and something makes you happy, go for it!  Just don't expect that everyone else is going to buy in. 

Perfect timing! I am auditioning Ethernet cables as we speak, and without a doubt I hear a difference. I was a software engineer for thirty five years with much of my time spent working on operating systems or at the device level. I understand well how and why data networks and protocols function, designed a few myself. But all bets are off when you start using an industrial technology in the delicate and sensitive world of high end audio. 

Let me ask you this, why did they need to change the Ethernet cable specification so drastically between cat 6 and cat 8? More shielding, metal termination connected to shielding, grounding, more twists in the pairs. Noise and interference. And these are what affects your audio system, even when the data arrives 100% intact.

Feel free to continue your willful ignorance, but most of us know that everything matters.

@zlone --How would a data cable produce noise and interference on an audio signal? Can it be measured? In your own words, please expand on how this affects sound quality. If it can be measured, why are these datapoints not published by the cable manufacturer? 

@grunge1000 The cable does not produce noise by itself. It acts as an antenna that can channel outside interference, and then there is just the inherent noise of high frequency electronics. Cat 8 standards are needed to successfully transfer data at high volume, read high frequency, needed for faster networks. 

Look inside high end digital equipment and you might see dividers or optical isolators between various boards that are used to prevent noise bleeding into the signal. This is not by accident. And I am quite sure the engineers at Aurender, Innuos and Antipodes could all share their measurements and explain how they have worked to remove noise from the digital chain.

How does it affect sound quality? Mitigating noise reduces your noise floor. The importance and effect of this cannot be quantified in words, only by hearing the results. 

@devinplombier 

Cable manufacturers bloviate at length about subjective parameters because that’s what audiophiles understand (faster bass, deeper soundstage, inky black noise floor, etc), whereas objective parameters like LCR go way over most folks’ heads, and that would not make effective marketing.

Also... no one really cares. Folks are prompted to buy expensive cables by dog whistles only they can hear, then they reverse-justify their actions using tall tales of magical sonic improvements.

At the end of the day, a cable manufacturer has little incentive to show that their cables are different because that’s not what sells them.

This is GOLD!